ATLANTA, GA-- With potentially competing sites emerging in the suburbs, the city council is getting behind a deal to build a new football stadium downtown, according to the city council president.

"I think there is broad support for making a deal with the Atlanta Falcons. I think the devil is in the details," said council president Cesar Mitchell.

Some of those details came up in a city council work session Friday. Councilman Ivory Young backs a new stadium too, but wants the state to expand the nearby MARTA station. He also wants the deal to include improvements for the troubled neighborhood surrounding it, English Avenue and Vine City.

"The state of Georgia needs to play a more profound role in fixing the MARTA station," Young opined.

"The realignment of Martin Luther King (Drive). Who's responsible for that?" Young asked.

"I think that we will come forward with a plan to do more for Vine City and English Avenue than has ever been done by anybody," said Mayor Kasim Reed during the meeting.

It was the mayor's job to soothe members of the city council while deftly twisting their arms. A new stadium, Reed says, will bring jobs with an emphasis on women and minority businesses. It will help adjacent neighborhoods, he said.

"I'm going to show you that no other city in America did a better (stadium) deal," Reed told council members.

The deal would put a new billion dollar stadium up in place of the Georgia Dome, partially paid with hotel motel tax money. Those devilish details will still take weeks to iron out.